Snow sports: Berkshire Summit Pass a boon for Western Mass. slopes

Move over, Epic and Ikon mega passes. Make room for the Berkshire Summit Pass.

This Massachusetts-based independent multi-ski area pass – valid at Berkshire East, Bousquet Mountain and Catamount Mountain Resort with no restrictions – fueled an unanticipated journey around Western Mass. last weekend as I skied the three funky, unpretentious and challenging areas in the Berkshires in one day.

That wasn’t my original intention on this frigid Sunday when I took off for Berkshire East, leaving Worcester at 8:30 a.m., and hitting the slopes about 10:15.

I got in a couple of great runs on ample snow on two of my favorite steep trails at the classic Charlemont mountain – UMass and Grizzly – before I decided that it was just too crowded at the “B’East.”

The backup summit triple chairlift was down in the morning and the biggest lift line crowd I’ve seen at Berkshire East in 10 years or so snaked a long way from the main summit quad chair loading deck.

So I decided to drive to Bousquet, the oldest continuously operating ski area in the country (founded by a Spencer native) and now managed by Berkshire East, 35 miles west on some seriously back roads that wind through the snowy mountains and farms of the northern Berkshires range. Good thing my car has all-wheel drive.

My two runs at this Pittsfield mainstay – one of only three ski areas in New England located in a city, the others being McIntyre in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the single T-bar-served, nonprofit Brattleboro Ski Hill in Vermont – unfortunately were only on three quarters of the mountain.

That’s because the new summit lift that Bousquet’s new owner, Milltown Capital, a community-minded private investment group, is installing is a few weeks behind schedule due to construction snafus.

Next up, and the last of my Summit Pass trifecta, was Catamount, which Berkshire East and its owners, the Schaefer family, bought in May 2018.

By the way, according to Jon Schaefer, principal owner and general manager of Berkshire East and Catamount, I was the first person to accomplish the admittedly somewhat obscure feat of skiing those two areas plus Bousquet in one day.

“The Berkshire Summit Pass represents mountains you can ski,” Schaefer told me, emphasizing the “you.”

“Not mountains you might think about skiing,” he continued. “Berkshire East, Catamount and Bousquet have deep skiing roots, and they, like other independent mountains, are important mountains to keep the soul of skiing alive.”

Schaefer, of course, was obliquely referring to the giant resorts owned or covered by the mega passes: places like Stratton, Vail, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley and Stowe.

The Summit Pass mountains might be small by comparison. Berkshire East, at 1,180 vertical feet, offers the biggest skiing in Massachusetts. Catamount checks in at 1,000 vertical feet, and Bousquet, at 750.

But while they are clearly smaller than the mega resorts, the Berkshires areas all ski a lot bigger than their physical stature might suggest.

“That you achieved the three mountains in a day means that you committed to some driving,” Schaefer told me, correctly. “Because Western Massachusetts is bigger than it looks, but it also means they are accessible.”

Technically, I drove about 250 miles in all – about the same distance and time I would have spent traveling from Worcester, to, say, Vermont’s Okemo and back for a day of big mountain skiing at a resort owned by the giant Vail Resorts chain.

This is the first season it has been possible to ski the three Western Massachusetts mountains under one pass.

Bousquet joined the Summit Pass group for the 2020-21 season after Milltown Capital took on the Schaefers to manage the ski area. The Schaefers are also contracted this season to manage the recently reopened private Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain in Wilmington, Vermont.

Perched on the New York state border, more than half of Catamount’s terrain – and its entrance -  lies within Egremont, and Catamount is considered a Massachusetts ski area.

I hadn’t skied there in about 25 years. I was astounded at the transformation the venerable area has enjoyed under Berkshire East ownership.

The Schaefers have cut eight new trails – including the experts only Christopher’s Leap and Ripper to accompany Catapult, the ski area’s famously long and steep run – and new glades, built a sprawling, beautiful new base lodge and renovated the old one and put up a new lift. Other notable improvements include significant snowmaking and grooming upgrades.

Especially with the urban outmigration spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic, Catamount has become a magnet for New York City area ski families, while Berkshire East mainly serves the Springfield area, Greenfield and northwest Connecticut markets (and also attracts a few Central Massachusetts refugees like me).

One of the innovations the Berkshire East brain trust came up with for this COVID-19 season is consumer-friendly pricing.

Another is a collection of some 50 re-purpose able pine cabanas, harvested from Charlemont forest, that dot the already family-friendly areas and have become popular with families in the pandemic season.

Look inside the cabanas – some with curtains and makeshift door coverings - and you’ll see families and other skiers and riders sitting around picnic tables and enjoying beverages and sandwiches from the cooler.

I’m not sure if grills are allowed inside the windowed mini-lodges, but you certainly see plenty of open-air grilling and tailgating in the parking lots of ski areas across the country in the COVID-19 era.

Meanwhile, in the summer and fall pre-season, Summit Pass customers could pay for their season passes in interest-free monthly installments, with a $10 down payment.

Until May 31, an unlimited adult pass with no restrictions – good at all three areas – was $479, with prices going up by $100 Aug. 3 and again in the late fall.

A senior pass (and seniors remarkably are considered those 60 and over)  was originally $379, then $449 and finally $499 in late fall.

That’s a darn good deal.

Central Massachusetts’ own Wachusett Mountain in Princeton also offers affordable season passes under its GPS (greatest possible savings) plan. But Wachusett cut off season pass sales in mid-fall to comply with state COVID-19 capacity restrictions.

Berkshire East is still selling the Summit Pass.

Both areas are giving loyal season passholders priority this season over day ticket buyers, with day tickets regularly capped and day skiers required to buy online beforehand.

I’m flexing my Summit Pass as hard as I can.

—Contact Shaun Sutner at s_sutner@yahoo.com